I have had a lot of mixed comments regarding EA's and ESPN's NHL series. Fact of the matter is, despite the fact that ESPN does have a good hockey game, it does not come close to the realism that EA brings. Programming wise, it is evident that the team at EA Sports has put in more passion and hard work in their Hockey franchise. As for ESPN, I don't really have anything bad I have had a lot of mixed comments regarding EA's and ESPN's NHL series. Fact of the matter is, despite the fact that ESPN does have a good hockey game, it does not come close to the realism that EA brings. Programming wise, it is evident that the team at EA Sports has put in more passion and hard work in their Hockey franchise. As for ESPN, I don't really have anything bad to say about their production team except for the fact that they lack the experience that EA brings to the game. But hey, you gotta start somewhere and the ESPN team definitely has the potential to be a worthy competitor. As for now though there is only one thing I can say...EA SPORTS, IT'S IN THE GAME!! …Expand

The actual hockey is a bit of a mixed bag in 2K5. It still controls beautifully (that "smoothness" we mentioned earlier), and the gameplay is again top-notch - once you tweak it that is. The default settings are pretty awful. [Oct 2004, p.31]